ORGANISATIONS in the UK are becoming more reluctant to report fraud, it was claimed today .
The latest half-yearly Fraud Track report by accountancy firm BDO said UK authorities “have reached the limit of their ability to prosecute offenders” and may be choosing to deal with the issue via civil rather than criminal means.
Fraud Track logged fraud totalling £920m for the six months to May, 2011, against £1.06bn for the same period last year.
While fraud reported by those in public administration almost doubled from £216m to £431m, fraud reported in the finance and insurance sectors almost halved to £274m from £524m.
Public administration cases now represent 46% of all reported fraud in the UK.
Simon Bevan, head of fraud services at BDO, said: “Having worked through two recessions, my experience is that fraud is more likely to be uncovered in these market conditions.
“Do these figures indicate that less fraud is happening?
“Not in my view. Rather, we think this represents a reluctance to report fraud to the authorities, particularly in the financial services sector.”
